I felt desolate to a degree. I felt – yes, idiot that I am – I felt degraded. I doubted I had taken a step which sank instead of raising me in the scale of social existence. I was weakly dismayed at the ignorance, the poverty, the coarseness of all I heard and saw round me. But let me not hate and despise myself too much for these feelings: I know them to be wrong – that is a great step gained; I shall strive to overcome them…In a few months, it is possible, the happiness of seeing process, and a change for the better in my scholars, may substitute gratification for disgust.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. After her first day teaching at the school in Morton, Jane feels conflicted in her feelings about trying to bring learning to a class of poor, uneducated girls. She is dismayed at the scale of their ignorance and roughness. The task seems more than what she bargained for. But she pledges to remain positive and looks forward to seeing progress in a few months.